What’s a saying from your region that’s uncommon elsewhere?

31 comments

1. Feeder Roads

   Slime in the ice machine!

2. Party store

3. Where I grew up: “Going down the Shore”. It does NOT mean the same thing as “Going to the beach”.

4. It’s a dry heat

5. NYC. Not so much sayings as regional phrases and terms that get you funny looks or don’t have an analog elsewhere. These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

   We stand *on line*, not in line.

   A whole pizza is *pie*, not a pizza. If it’s got no extra toppings, it’s *plain*, not a cheese pizza.

   Privately owned convenience/grocery stores are *bodegas, delis, corner stores or 24 hour stores*. We also have 99 cent stores, which sell random cheap shit like toys, socks, electronics etc.

   *The city* means Manhattan. Everywhere else is identified by borough even though it’s still NYC—*Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn or Staten Island.*

   The stairs leading to the entrance of a house or apartment is a stoop.

   This last one isn’t for NYC, but if you go upstate a few hours (Albany specifically) they call hamburgers *steamed hams*.

   Edit: Oh, and if you’re riding the subway always *stand clear of the closing doors, please*.

6. “I’m headed outside for the winter,” meaning that the speaker is leaving the state for the colder months.

7. Waiting *on* a line and not *in* a line.

8. I grew up in Rhode Island and water fountains (like the kind where you press the button and water shoots up out of the spigot) were called bubblers, ubiquitously. I knew they were called water fountains, but never heard anyone call them that ever. I have never heard someone not from Rhode Island call them that.

9. “Bless your/his/her heart”.

   The delivery reflects intent. It can be a sincere vocalization of sympathy or like downright cattiness.

10. Toboggan (not a sled of any kind)

11. Apparently “Tail-light Warranty” is not that common.

12. Yinz

13. Down yonder

14. Literally make them up as I speak.

15. “Ope” has several uses in Midwestern parlance – it can mean sorry/ excuse me, oops, or be an expression of mild surprise.

16. “Yinz guys gonna go dahn Gian’ Iggle to get some chipped ham or jumbo, n’at? Be careful cause it’s all slippy ahtside.”

17. Jawn

18. We don’t have yard or garage sales. They are *tag sales*.

    Want to buy some liquor? Sure no problem, head over to *package store*, aka *the packy*.

19. Yeah no.

20. Probably front room (pronounced frunch room). 99% of houses in Chicago and the near suburbs have a very similar layout where you walk right into the living room or front room. Also I don’t think a lot of other areas call them gym shoes, my southern family calls them tennis shoes and from what I’ve heard out eat and west they say sneakers.

21. “At least it’s not Phoenix.”
    Whenever someone says how hot it is in Tucson, someone will almost always reply “at least it’s not Phoenix” because Phoenix is usually 10 degrees warmer. Like that is supposed to make it better.

    “This 110 degrees is killing me.”
    “Yeah, but at least it’s not Phoenix!”

22. I’d probably have to go with “you’re sweatin like a whore in church”

23. Ope, lemme just squeeze pastya there

24. Also growing up in Michigan, Going Up.North is a place, not a direction. Generally it’s anything north of Michigan Route 10, M10.

    I know you also go up north in Wisconsin and Minnesota. North of Green Bay or to the Iron Range and areas west.

25. The mountain is out

26. Soda? Pop? Seltzer? Fuck no. It’s “a Coke”. As in…

    A: “You want a Coke?”

    B: “Yea!”

    A: “Uhh… we got some Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and a couple gatorades, which one you want?”

27. Uff da.

28. Hoosier. Not meaning a person from Indiana, but instead a person with no class. Basically a St. Louis term for white trash. Sorry, Indiana, please don’t take it personally.

29. We don’t call it Cali.

    South of the Grapevine, you say the name of the freeway with “the” in front of it (the 5, the 405).

30. NC:

    Over yonder.

    Buggy for a shopping cart.

    Mash for “press” as in an elevator button.

    Joint – another term for a restaurant or bar, like “A Barbecue Joint”

    Fixin’ – as in Fixin to = about to

    I Might could – I may be willing to do something In The future.

31. In Oregon, an expensive item is “spendy.”